On the phase diagram of a three-dimensional dipolar model

TL;DR

This study maps the magnetic phase diagram of a 3D dipolar system with uniaxial anisotropy on an FCC lattice, revealing how disorder and frustration influence paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, and spin-glass phases.

Contribution

It provides a detailed phase diagram considering anisotropy and dipolar interactions, connecting microscopic parameters to macroscopic magnetic phases in nanoparticle supracrystals.

Findings

Identified phase boundaries between paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, and spin-glass regions.

Showed the impact of anisotropy and dipolar energies on the ordered phases.

Compared random anisotropy with aligned easy axes configurations.

Abstract

The magnetic phase diagram at zero external field of an ensemble of dipoles with uniaxial anisotropy on a FCC lattice has been investigated from tempered Monte Carlo simulations. The uniaxial anisotropy is characterized by a random distribution of easy axes and its magnitude $\lambda_u$ is the driving force of disorder and consequently frustration. The phase diagram, separating the paramagnetic, ferromagnetic and spin-glass regions, was thus considered in the temperature, $\lambda_u$ plane. Here we interpret this phase diagram in terms of the more convenient variables namely the bare dipolar interaction and anisotropy energies $\epsilon_d$ and $\epsilon_u$ on the one hand and the volume fraction $\Phi$ on the other hand and compare the result with that corresponding to the random distribution of particles in the absence of anisotropy. We also display the nature of the ordered phase reached at low temperature by the ensemble of dipoles on the FCC lattice in terms of both the dipolar coupling and the texturation of the easy axes distribution when the latter is no more random. This system is aimed at modeling the magnetic phase diagram of supracrystals of magnetic nanoparticles.